Mumbai, Aug 21 2024-
Matthew Hayden, the former Australia opener, believes the current Test team will miss the extremely competitive and wonderfully dynamic nature of David Warner in this year’s Border-Gavaskar Trophy series.
Warner played 112 Tests for Australia and amassed 8786 runs at an average of 44.6, with this year seeing his international career come to an end. Since then, Usman Khawaja and Steve Smith have been Australia’s opening pair in Tests, but that hasn’t brought them much success.
“Yes, it is. For the first time, it (Australia Test opening pair) doesn’t feel as secure. David Warner gave great service to Australian cricket. He gave a service that was extremely competitive, and wonderfully dynamic. He really took that legacy that I’d created through the 2000s to a new level, strike rates in excess of 80, and gave great momentum to the top order, which otherwise is quite a conservative, very good, but very conservative batting line-up.”
“So, yes, I think he’s an enormous loss in terms of how do you replace them. Clearly, they’ve gone in the direction of Steve Smith thus far. Whether they continue with that strategy, time will tell, and we have guys like Bancroft that are always in the pipeline. Then Matt Renshaw’s in the pipeline.”
“(Cameron) Bancroft, when you look at his form in England, has been excellent, but that’s domestic cricket and not Border-Gavaskar type cricket. So, a few things to really prove from that engine room of Australian cricket, which is being challenged right now with Davey’s absence,” said Hayden to reporters on the sidelines of CEAT Cricket Rating Awards in Mumbai.
Smith opened the batting for Australia in Tests against West Indies and New Zealand, but made 171 runs in eight innings at an average of 28.25. With Smith recently admitting about having no idea of his batting position for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, Hayden explained why he feels the right-handed batter is not the best person to open the batting for Australia in Tests.
“The rationale that George Bailey (Australia men’s chief selector) gave was correct in so far as that he just was choosing his best top six batsmen. Now, you can’t argue with Steve Smith – he’s averaging 65 in Test match cricket, 32 Test match hundreds, and just all over play. But the role of an opening batsman compared to a middle order batsman is very different.”
“It didn’t take long to discover that when you get into challenging conditions like they faced in the first series outside of Australia, which was in New Zealand, that opening the batting is very difficult. Personally, as I said at that time, was on record saying that I didn’t like changing.”
“I think it’s crazy to think that you have the world’s best in-class batter in a certain position and then you change to a completely different position. For a few reasons I think that’s crazy. Firstly, why? Such a gun in that position, such a coveted player.”
“And then it also is not a great nod to the first-class setup, which is very much in Australian cricket culture been driving great results towards key roles, be that any one of the roles, wicket keeping, batting, spinners, fast bowlers, opening batters. So, the 1, 2 and 3 is a category which needs to be protected in my opinion, as it sets up play,” he elaborated.
Australia hasn’t won the Border-Gavaskar Trophy at home after 2014/5 and Pat Cummins, who has won the ODI World Cup and World Test Championship (WTC) as the skipper, will be keen to win the prestigious series back for the hosts’. Hayden also stated Cummins will end up as one of the greatest captains to ever lead Australia.
“He’s a great of our game. He has a very special leadership style and ability. It’s very different from the former kind of captains of the Australian team that were very much a carrot and stick type approach. He’s operating on a model that’s bringing out the individuals’ preparation in particular, something in which I think our game struggles, being a team sport.”
“Ultimately, (it’s) how you get the best out of an individual. He has a slightly off-centre approach. I followed this team now very closely over the last two years, and they’re an extremely close team. Pat is a great leader, and he will go down as one of our greats.”
Hayden signed off by saying there is very little to separate between the Indian and Australian batting line-ups. “You look at the lineups, and it’s hard to really tell who has the edge. I sense that it’s going to be runs that are going to be the point of difference. Guys that are sure bets have retired, like Pujara was a sure bet in Australian conditions.”
“Was he exciting? No. Was he effective? Heck, yes. When you look back over the years, guys like Raul Dravid, VVS Laxman… they were really sure bets in our market. The best need to stand up in this series, runs are going to be at a premium.” (Agency)
